Too Great a Sky

by Liliana Corobca, Monica Cure (translator)

The story of the deportation of Romanians from Bukovina, an exercise in historical memory which demonstrates how to maintain humanity in impossible conditionsA new novel from Liliana Corobca and her award-winning translator Monica Cure.Ana is eleven when the Soviet soldiers send her from Bucovina, Romania, to Kazakhstan. She is just one of many forced to leave behind her home and make the three week long journey via train. The trip is a harsh, humiliating one, but in spite of the cold and the closeness of death, life persists in the boxcar in the form of story-telling, riddles, and ritual. Years later, Ana recalls her childhood for her great grand-daughter, who is considering moving her to a nursing home. Her story, told with unflinching candor, is a chronicle of a life lived during a time of great political and national change, a story of an existence defined and curtailed by lines drawn on a map.The narration is interspersed with songs that transform into poems, and prayers spoken in the past that become prayers in the present. What links the narration is not so much a plot as it is the reader’s astonishment. How can Ana could survive such a series of experiences, and do so with her mind and heart intact? A history of cruelty and trauma lies behind the banal markers of contemporary life. These realizations combine in the central theme of the book, one which the narrator states as, “Stories bring you youth.”

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Kazakhstan, Romania

344 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2024

About the author

Liliana Corobca s-a nascut la 10 octombrie 1975, in satul Saseni, judetul Orhei, Republica Moldova. A absolvit Facultatea de Litere a Universitatii de Stat din Moldova, sectia romana-latina. Este doctor in filologie (conducator stiintific: prof. Nicolae Manolescu) la Universitatea din Bucuresti, cu teza Personajul in romanul romanesc interbelic, Editura Universitatii Bucuresti, 2003. A debutat cu romanul Negrissimo, Editura Arc, Chisinau, 2003 (Premiul „Prometheus“ pentru debut al revistei Romania literara, Premiul de debut al Uniunii Scriitorilor din Republica Moldova). A editat corespondenta din exil a lui Al. Busuioceanu, Un roman epistolar al exilului romanesc, vol. I si II, Editura Jurnalul literar, Bucuresti, 2003, 2004), Poezia romaneasca din exil (antologie, prefata si note, Editura Institutului Cultural Roman, Bucuresti, 2006), Dictionarul General al Literaturii Romane (coautor, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, Bucuresti, 2004-2008).

Reviews

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books)]

Oh dear, this is a well-regarded novel, and I couldn't get past page 75. This probably says more about me than the book.

However, when it comes to fiction, I have pronounced allergies to two things: (1) sincere religiosity, especially when verbose, and (2) large portions of text rendered in italics. As I'm sure we can all agree, extended passages in italics are a crime against humanity. Or at least, against literature.

Wouldn't you know it, this novel suffered from both. Prayers and more prayers, maybe some meditations, all in italics. Somebody, please, shoot me now.

I was also at odds with the point of view: the fact that we get the horrific deportation details told to us through a devout child's eyes struck me as more cloying than poignant.

What can I say? I'm glad so many others connected with it. Even happier that I put it down early.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

A harrowing time,a terrible experience and it somehow ends up being flat,boring,repetitive,aimless. Weird.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read an interview with Liliana Corobca & Monica Cure (https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog...) or my review at the Asymptote blog (https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog...) "Considering the specific, intimate detail with which Ana conveys her individual experiences, it’s the story’s movement through traditional oral forms that enables its magnificent expansion; Too Great a Sky carries not only the experiences of one young woman, but the shared culture and collective history of a region­—and a people—forced to face, then overcome, irreparable tragedy and transformation."

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely beautiful--one of the best books I've read in a while. I knew about the Soviet gulags, but I didn't know about the deportations that began during World War II. The narrative style really does sound like a grandmother telling her life story, with parts out of sequence or repeated in different ways. There are songs included where the translation is a bit awkward in order to preserve the rhyming scheme, but it's really interesting how they're based on songs from actual deportees of the time. I think this is a book that is really going to stick with me.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a little time to get in to the swing of this but once I did I was richly rewarded. It’s the story of a young Romanian girl from Bucovina deported to the Kazakh steppes during World War Two. The way in which it is written felt to me completely unique. You have the story - the recollections of a young girl being reported 80 years later by an old woman whose memory seems to be failing and with all of the compelexity that that entails. Some episodes are crystal clear and razor sharp, others, if not confused certainly feel exaggerated, misremembered, or maybe even misinterpreted from the time they happened. Timelines feel like those of a child - a three week train journey (admittedly long enough for the terrible deprivations that the deportees were suffering) feels as if it is months long. Occasionally there is repitition, or part of the story is told out of its chronology. And interspersed throughout are snippets of old songs and stories and an ode to Bukovinian traditions. It’s quite the feat. There were parts that I didn’t like as much - there is a lot of religiosity but in fairness this is given a key feature of this small family’s will to survive and it feels most prominent in the first third of the book, and personally I wasn’t completely taken by the short sections of modern life interspersed throughout (although it was this that made me sob like a baby at the end…).

The book is split into mainly three sections - the deporatation and subsequent train journey to Kazakhstan, the time in exile and finally life back in what is now Moldova when the deportees are allowed to return. The latter was by far my favourite and what pulled in up to a five star read for me but all in all this is still a fabulous read as long as you can approach it with an open mind and not expect a traditionally structured memoir. It won’t be for everyone but I’m really looking forward to more from this author.

[Magdalena Jelec]

DNF'd after 100 pages (1/3 of the book).

Even though the storyline is very important because it follows the story of a mother and daughter who were taken by the Soviet soldiers, put into a railcar with the rest of the village and deported from Romania to Central Asia, the writing style simply put me off.

The great-grandma is telling her story and the narrator really does sound like a grandma who is almost at her deathbed and remembers her life. Some things repeat (sometimes very often!) and I feel like it's going in circles.

Maybe if it had been shorter, it would have left a better impression.

Also, at times the narrator simply lists all the folk-tale or Christian stories alongside folk songs that were sung on the train in real-life. If I wanted to read non-fiction, then I wouldn't mind it, but this was all just a bit messy.

Life is short and I decided this year I am not going to force myself to read the book I don't like just because I started it (something I was doing in the past).

I am keeping myself from rating it because I didn't read even half of it and it wouldn't be fair, but it would've been given 2 or 3 stars had I finished it.

[Robert Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once you get used to the way the narrator speaks and interacts with her great-granddaughter, this is a powerful work. What works especially well is the author's sense of pacing. Just when you hit your saturation point with depressing material, she knows when to offer something in a different direction, but once that's been accomplished, she doesn't flinch from bringing back the necessary darkness. I think the most important thing one can say about this work is that it's not a work about a horrifying historical moment, but it's more about being a human being during those times. I would argue that this is a must-read.

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting topic (soviet deportations of romanians just before ww2) but told in a way which ends up feeling repteitive and dull.

The first section of the train journey to sibera is well written and engaging, but it struggles to keep an interesting narrative once they arrive on the steppe.